Americans make such bad cappuccinos, most of us don't even know from a good one. We foam the milk till it's hellishly frothy. We shower the cup with cinnamon. Nicolas O'Connell and his bosses at Philadelphia's La Colombe Torrefaction want to right our wrongs. When they are not running their coffee shop, they visit the country's best restaurants, schooling the staffs in how to properly handle an espresso machine. When you oversteam the milk, explains O'Connell, you get big "shampoo-like bubbles." When you overheat the milk, you get a smell like "aged goat cheese." You do not want shampoo or goat cheese in your cappuccino.

Step 1

Insert a steam-wand tip one-half inch into a small metal pitcher of cold milk. As the milk foams, lower the pitcher at the same rate the milk rises. No bobbing up and down.

Step 2

The correct milk temperature is 148 to 155 degrees. If you are not using a thermometer, you know the temperature is right when the little metal pitcher feels to your touch like, in the words of La Colombe cofounder Todd Carmichael, "approximately the temperature of a car hood in the summer heat: hot, but not burning hot."

Step 3

Make espresso.

Step 4

Now the secret: "Nobody does it except us and the people we train," says O'Connell. "Let the foamy milk settle for about fifteen seconds. Then it's crucial to swirl the container for a few seconds, until the foam and milk are incorporated. It's ready when the surface of the milk becomes shiny. Pour the milk on top of the espresso without using a spoon. If you make cappuccino with a spoon, you can't be a barrista at La Colombe."